“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:15-20)
Just moments before this passage, Jesus had warned against judging others harshly (7:1ff). Whatever He meant by that, He did not intend we should simply treat everyone as an angel from God. In this specific case, we are to be on guard against anyone who claims to be a fellow believer, and wants our support for their projects.
While Jesus specifically names those who claim to be prophets, I’m confident it’s no stretch to say this applies to spiritual leadership in general. A prophet in Jesus’ day was just about anyone who claimed to have a message from God, and were demanding folks should hear their message and take appropriate action. The setup for guarding against those who make this claim falsely is the previous paragraph, where Jesus describes His teaching as a narrow and difficult path.
Therefore, taking into account Jesus’ warning we should not take ourselves too seriously, and we should expect all this to be challenging, we are in proper humility to consider the threat from those who would deceive and mislead. What motive could there be for such a thing? Most of the time, they are not as diabolical as our first instincts would have us think. For Jesus to call them “ravenous wolves” is not painting them as knowingly Satanic in intent. Wolves are not necessarily evil, just hungry.
Most false prophets are hungry for attention, power, control, money, or any number of other things they value. They aren’t driven by a sense of calling to God’s purpose. Even recognizing this, things are far from simple. They may indeed have been called by God and gotten off track. Their motives may include a genuine desire to see God’s People in a better state. They may genuinely love the brothers and sisters, and they may well be truly born-again. Indeed, motives are merely inferred, as only the Lord truly reads the hearts of man.
Thus, we come to the whole point of this parable. We do not see the workings of someone else’s soul. Discerning of spirits is not like magic, where you get a tingling in your spine or something equally peculiar. That’s more likely to be simple human emotions in action. God forbid we should let our emotions lead us. True spiritual discernment is a matter of taking the whole picture, including whatever messages God may give in one’s spirit, however it is He does so with each of His servants (Philippians 2:12). It most certainly must take into account the clear Word of Scripture, which is what we have here: You will discern potential leaders by the result of God’s Word working in their lives.
We need not examine in detail here what all that means; sufficient it is to refer to Paul’s examination of the matter in Galatians 5:16-26. Given the assumption we know what fruit of the Spirit looks like, we are in a position to discern wolves from shepherds. Everyone claiming to speak for God had better get used to the idea of being examined, and taking it with good grace. Indeed, as one who seeks opportunities for spiritual leadership, few things are more frightening than encountering a group which embraces me without checking me out. It causes me to wonder if it is they who are all wolves in sheep’s clothing.
When a leadership candidate exhibits mixed fruit, perhaps they can benefit from encouragement. Otherwise, we will most often find there will be a preponderance of spiritual evidence whether they are someone we can work with, or someone whose passions cannot be trusted. We need not pull out the swords unless folks turn feral on us, blatantly seeking to destroy. The Body at hand should simply quarantine the threat, and go on under the assumption they may in future days heal and be useful.
You and I know that today’s sheep herding dogs are but a few bits of DNA away from the ravenous wolves which once devoured sheep. While that may not have been in Jesus’ mind at the time, I’m sure He would have tempered taking this parable too far by pointing to the context in which it was given, beginning with “Judge not, lest you be judged.” The Gospel message includes noting the nature of fallen man, and the great need of redemption. Our responsibility is to take the action appropriate for the moment, redeeming the times, and turning the moment to His glory. By His power, He can enable us to fend off those who cannot be trusted. By His power, He can also turn today’s wolf into tomorrow’s sheep dog.
